I finally got the opportunity to see Avatar, the James Cameron film that is capable of curing cancer and reshaping the way we look at race relations in America. Based on previous recommendations and reviews of this film, I half expected that the War on Terror would instantly end after I left the theater. While it was a good movie and will ultimately be a great use case for original concept science fiction films, I didn’t feel it deserved all the hype it received.

I had two real concerns with the film, one being the villains overly simplified motivations and the second being the computer generated creatures, including but not limited to the Na’vi. It’s not the quality of the CGI as it was some of the best computer generated imagery I’ve seen yet. It’s more my preference in the style of imagery that’s generated. As I’m watching the film, I’m consistently jarred from my suspension of disbelief when I see the real world mixed with the artificial. It reminds me of drinking a diet coke unsuspectingly. The familiar characteristics of your favorite soft drink are sullied by the taste of aspartame.

This isn’t an issue specific to Avatar. I think the problem first came to light for me when the Star Wars Prequels were released. Lucas went a tad crazy on his use of computer generated imagery and it made the film seem strikingly different. The aliens in the film while more robust, alive and animated (bad pun) they are immediately recognized in my mind as not truly being part of the world. Instead of being immersed in the dialogue between Jar Jar and Obi Wan (ha..immersed with Jar Jar dialogue!) I can’t stop thinking about how far off Ewan McGreggor’s eye line is to the character he’s supposedly interacting with. Strange, I don’t remember feeling that way when Luke talked to Jabba the Hut. Because Jabba the Hut was there, albeit in the form of a puppet.

Yes I know, puppets are old school, puppets can’t swing through trees and puppets can’t have intimate sex scenes. So what? There was a time when we didn’t need our puppets to replace Jean Claude Van Damme. We were perfectly happy with our puppets having 2 men stuffed in the top end of a suit, not moving any further than the bar their stuck behind. But those characters looked real. They looked authentic. And they didn’t jar you out of your suspended reality. They blended so well with the rest of the world.

I know puppets have their limitations, but what they lend to the end product far outweighs anything computer generated parkour could bring. More should follow in the footsteps of Guillermo del Torro. More directors should use puppets.

This entry was posted on Saturday, January 16th, 2010 at 10:00 am and is filed under Movies/Television, Random. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.